


Supernova

by theimprobable1



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post-Reichenbach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-26
Updated: 2012-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-30 03:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/327467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theimprobable1/pseuds/theimprobable1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John knows Sherlock is dead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Supernova

John knows Sherlock is dead.

Of course he knows. He saw him jump off a rooftop. He saw his dead body. His blood on the pavement. He touched his wrist and felt no pulse. He attended his funeral and he visits his grave every week. He has all the evidence he could possibly ask for.

And yet.

And yet, he also knows that Sherlock being dead doesn’t make any sense. If Sherlock had died because he did something stupid and reckless, then yes, that would have made sense. But suicide?

_Sherlock Holmes committed suicide._

The sentence rings so false in John’s ears. It’s just – wrong. Sherlock’s reasons for killing himself – that he was a fraud – are _obviously, undeniably_ false. Why would he kill himself because of something that wasn’t true? Something they could _prove_ wasn’t true? Why would he try to convince John, when he must have known that John would never believe it?

_No, stay exactly where you are. Don’t move._

Why would Sherlock ignore the news that Mrs Hudson had been shot? Unless he knew it wasn’t true. Unless it was part of his plan.

_It’s a trick. Just a magic trick._

Sherlock had intentionally deceived John before.

_Keep your eyes fixed on me._

Sherlock could predict Moriarty’s moves. How far ahead was he able to think?

Except no one could survive a fall from that height.

Except, if someone could, it would be Sherlock Holmes, wouldn’t it?

Forty-three days after Sherlock’s… _fall_ , John receives a copy of National Geographic, even though he’s never subscribed to it. On the cover, there is a picture of a supernova.

 _The Van Buren supernova,_ Sherlock’s voice supplies helpfully in John’s head.

It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a mistake. There are plenty of John Watsons in London. Probably just a typo in the address or something.

Still, he flips the magazine open on the supernovae article and scans it quickly. No mention of Van Buren, but before John’s heart can sink, something else catches his eye.

_1895._

It’s the year of birth of an astronomer called Rudolph Minkowski. _… identified two types of supernovae… spectral lines of hydrogen… maximum brilliance… evolved red giant…_ The year of his death is not mentioned.

Why would you write a biographical note about someone and not include the year of their death? It could be either sloppy writing, or…

Someone secretly trying to tell John that they aren’t dead? Don’t be stupid, Watson.

The article was written by someone called Henrik Sigerson. The name doesn’t ring any bells, but maybe it should, maybe John has forgotten something important… He googles it, and gets no results. Does that prove anything? Disprove anything?

_HS – SH_

God, he’s delusional. What’s even more worrying, though, is the fact that he doesn’t care. He’d rather be mad in a world where Sherlock Holmes is alive and sending him secret messages, than sane in a world where he isn’t. 

He never contacts the editorial office of National Geographic to inform them that they sent him a magazine he hadn’t paid for.

He still visits Sherlock’s grave every week, and talks to it as if Sherlock could hear him. Sometimes he imagines that there is a recording device hidden behind the headstone, and after he leaves someone form Sherlock’s homeless network comes to collect it. He imagines Sherlock sitting in a dark, nondescript room, listening to the recording. He imagines his pale eyes, his thin face, his long fingers.

He could look behind the headstone and check, but he never does.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Supernova [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4712555) by [Lockedinjohnlock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lockedinjohnlock/pseuds/Lockedinjohnlock)




End file.
